Obama emerges optimistic at G-20

(NECN: Peter Howe, Medford, Mass.) It was another day of protests and politicking at the G-20 economic summit in London. But President Obama emerged optimistic he'd made progress. "We have agreed on a series of unprecedented steps to restore growth and prevent this from happening gain," the president told reporters after a day of talks with international leaders. Headline agreements: The world's 20 richest nations will commit $1.1 trillion through the International Monetary Fund in loans and loan guarantees to struggling countries. They also agreed to crack down on countries deemed to be tax-evasion havens, and tighten regulation of rogue hedge funds. But some disagreements proved intractable. France, Germany, and other European countries rebuffed Mr. Obama's call for U.S.-sized stimulus programs. At the same time, European leaders failed to win multinational support a global finance "superregulator" favored by French President Nicholas Sarkozy and others. Much of what President Obama promised to do in London was just to listen -- and that was the right call, said students from abroad at Tufts University's Fletcher School of international law and diplomacy. "The first point will be for the Americans to listen the Europeans' point of view," said Alvaro Gimenez-Gil, a master in international business candidate from Spain. "We will need to to work together to actually just help us and help the rest of the world to overcome this crisis.'' Howe: The Fletcher School is about as close to a United Nations as you'd find here in New England. There are students from 60 countries represented in the student body this year, and flags represent past students from dozens of other nations in the so-called hall of flags in Fletcher's Cabot Intercultural Center. Many international students -- along with many U.S. observers -- blame America for being the principal driver of the global economic meltdown, by allowing a real-estate- and Wall-Street-fueled economic bubble to swell and burst. "In Japan's perspective,'' said Japanese Fletcher student Saori Imaizumi, "we also think this economic downturn started in the U.S.'' She says she wished U.S. policymakers "knew about this possible crisis beforehand and acted before something becomes bigger.'' Imaizumi previously worked for an Accenture office in Tokyo that has had to lay off several of her former colleagues because of the global economic meltdown. Jean-Louis Romanet Perroux is a citizen of both France and Italy because of having a parent from each country. He sees why Europe is so leery of piling up debt from a huge stimulus like the $787 billion measure U.S. leaders enacted in February. "Many in Europe,'' Romanet Perroux said, "perceive that the problem was largely due to the laissez-fair, liberal approach to the markets and no intervention'' in curbing excessive speculation in real estate and exotic financial derivatives. "It should be fixed not by increasing investments and increasing the national debt without control, but by increasing regulations.'' Still, conversations with these students show how it remains a good time abroad for Mr. Obama. "Right now, he's in the honeymoon, so he's well perceived in Spain,'' Gimenez-Gil said. Imaizumi said: "I think there's a hope for the Obama administration.'' And Romanet Perroux said: "Definitely, there is a perception that the new president has a more multilateral approach and is much more open to discussion.''